State’s foreign policy compendium, now in e-book form

The State Department’s Office of the Historian released 108 volumes of its mammoth Foreign Relations of the United States series in e-book form Monday.

This first release is a pilot and many more volumes will come out soon, the office said.

The volumes are readable on Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad as well as several other e-readers and tablets. Unlike Web versions of famous documents, most e-readers allow users to bookmark and annotate texts as they could with a paper version.

Federal agencies are increasingly releasing major documents in more user friendly formats including e-books. The Government Printing Office offers more than 200 titles, including the federal budget, in e-book form.

The historian’s office is seeking public feedback on the e-book project at the email: history_ebooks@state.gov. The office will post updates on new volumes and other information on Twitter at @HistoryAtState.